sent to the center 557,000, the remainder expended according to directives of the People's Commissar of Food Supply for the months of June, July, and August. All the foregoing I report preliminarily; a written report upon my return from Kochhetov I shall send to the People's Commissariat of Food Supply by special courier.

Deputy Chairman of the Soviet of Labor and Defense, Acting People's Commissar of Food Supply Ponomarenko

31/8 [1921]

Comrade Smolyaninov!

One must look closely into this telegram. What is this "compulsory commodity exchange"? What is the *actual* equivalent? Question A. I. Smirnov about this. Send Ponomarenko a dispatch and follow up on the reply*.

Lenin.

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# TELEGRAMS TO THE UKRAINIAN COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS.

Kharkov, Comrade Rakovsky, copy to Comrade Vladimirov.

[Beginning of September 1921]

The People's Commissariat of Food Supply of the RSFSR has transferred to you in currency notes 20 billion rubles, of which 10 to Kiev, 10 to Kharkov for the purchase of grain and livestock. In the immediate future it is proposed, in addition to the Ukrainian monetary allocation, to send you systematically monetary funds in the amount of up to 50 billion [rubles] per month with special designation for the purchase of grain. The Central Committee of the RCP proposes to you:

1. firmly to earmark these remitted sums for the indicated purpose under the personal responsibility of all organs of the People's Commissariat of Finance; 2. to obligate the food supply organs under the responsibility of the Ukrainian People's Commissariat of Food Supply and the gubernial food supply commissions to expend the remitted funds exclusively for the purchase of grain and livestock. The Central Committee of the RCP proposes that you register the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of August 23 with the addition concerning the monopoly on salt*. [01149]

Chairman Lenin.

1 The decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the monopoly on salt, see *Izvestiya*, No. 194, September 2, 1921.

* Note written by Lenin at the end of Ponomarenko's telegram on the 3rd page. On the 1st page of the telegram there are the following notes by Lenin: "urgently to Smolyaninov. Important: see p. 3."

** Printed from a typewritten copy; signature in Lenin's own hand. Ed.

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# GRAIN REQUISITIONS

II*.

16877

Kharkov, to Rakovsky.

September 3, 1921

For ensuring the success of the food supply campaign in Ukraine, the Council of Labor and Defense has resolved:

"1. To instruct the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic to conduct, within a two-week period, recruitment of 20,000 volunteers not occupied in state enterprises and institutions from among former Red Army soldiers and young peasants from starving gubernii to staff the Ukrainian food supply militia. 2. To establish for volunteers recruited on the basis of this resolution a term of service of five months, after the expiration of which the volunteers must be disbanded and returned to their permanent places of residence in case of expressed desire by them. 3. Recruitment of volunteers to be conducted by the apparatus of the military department on the basis of instructions which the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, in agreement with the People's Commissariat of Labor, shall issue in development of this resolution. 4. Recruited volunteers must be delivered to Ukraine by order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and upon their arrival at the designated place shall be transferred to the Ukrainian People's Commissariat of Food Supply. Further utilization of volunteers, as well as their provision, shall be entrusted to the Ukrainian People's Commissariat of Food Supply in agreement with the Ukrainian People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs. 5. To place at the disposal of the military department, in accordance with its requisitions, a sufficient quantity of foodstuffs at the rate of the rear Red Army ration for the provisioning of volunteers at assembly points and en route, in addition to the quantity of foodstuffs presently allocated to the military department. 6. The Supreme Council for Transportation and the People's Commissariat of Railways shall ensure the transportation of volunteers to their place of destination. 7. The People's Commissariat of Workers' and Peasants' Inspection shall take measures for actual provision, according to established norms, of the families of volunteers on equal grounds with the families of Red Army soldiers in military service. 8. To volunteers recruited on the basis of this resolution, to grant the right of sending parcels at the expense of the Ukrainian People's Commissariat of Food Supply, on the bases established by the People's Commissariat of Food Supply, in total quantity not exceeding two poods per month per volunteer. 9. The respective People's Commissariats, in development of this resolution, shall issue to local organs corresponding instructions. 10. This resolution shall be put into effect by telegraph." [01067]

Chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense V. Ulyanov (Lenin).

* Printed from a typewritten copy. Ed.

** Supreme Council for Transportation. Ed.